


on the other side of the mountain

by lionsenpai



Category: RWBY
Genre: Gen, RWBYQuest - Freeform, Therapy
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-10-06
Updated: 2014-10-05
Packaged: 2018-02-20 02:21:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 455
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2411435
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lionsenpai/pseuds/lionsenpai
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They were taught how to fight, how to survive. No one taught them what to do afterwards.</p>
            </blockquote>





	on the other side of the mountain

Ruby goes Monday, Weiss Wednesday, Blake Thursday, and Yang on Friday.

Ruby waves Blake goodbye as she exits the room, hesitating over the doorknob for a half second, but either she doesn’t see or she doesn’t respond, slipping out into the hallway like a retreating animal. She’ll be back in an hour, and the make-up around her eyes will be smudged, but no one will say anything as she slides into bed, pulling the covers up over her head until hours later when it’s time for dinner.

No one says anything about the way she pulls Gambel’s Shroud beneath the covers as well because Ruby hasn’t spent a single night without Crescent Rose and Weiss never leaves Myrtenaster out of reach.

Sometimes it feels like a dream, like Yang has always looked so guilty, like Weiss never had eyes to begin with. But other times it all comes rushing back so suddenly that Ruby goes breathless, her hands shaking around the handle of her scythe, and all she wants to do is scream.

Her therapist says that’s normal, she lost a lot—more than just friends. She lost the parts of herself that made her feel safe at Beacon, that didn’t mind walking through certain hallways or sitting in the cafeteria. She loses the part of her that let her sleep at night. Now she just dozes, thrashing until her blankets are kicked down to the bottom of her bed, and waking up covered in sweat and flipping on the floodlight she keeps tucked beneath her headboard and the mattress. Sometimes she sees things at the edges of the light, and she goes crashing to the ground, Crescent Rose in hand, yelling for Weiss and Blake and Yang. She won’t let them be infected again. She won’t lose anymore.

Everyone’s wakes at the drop of a needle now—the dark rings beneath their eyes and hers aren’t just for show—but when they turn the lights on and scour the room, testing the three locks on their door and all of the windows and find nothing, Ruby closes in on herself and tucks her head into her knees and tries not to feel like nothing will ever be the same, that she’ll always be too scared of closing her eyes to ever really sleep again.

Those are the nights they crowd around her, even Weiss. They hold her until she can stand and then the four of them pile into Blake’s bed at the corner of the room, where they can see all the windows and doors, and pull the covers up over them, wrapped around their weapons instead of each other.

It isn’t much, but it’s the closest Ruby gets to sleep at all.


End file.
